CHAPTEE XIX 



FARM BOOKKEEPING 



EVERY man engaged in a business ought to 

 keep a set of books in order to know whether 

 his business pays. If it does not pay he of course 

 will find it out in due time, although he kept no 

 record of his business transactions. But that time 

 may be too late. He may be in the throes of bank- 

 ruptcy. Some system of bookkeeping is necessary 

 in every line of business. Bookkeeping is the 

 chart and compass necessary to have in sailing the 

 ship of business upon the mercantile sea. 



City business requires a more elaborate system 

 of bookkeeping and so men are employed as book- 

 keepers well trained in the art. A trial balance 

 is necessary to ascertain the drift of the business. 



But few engaged in the business of farming 

 could afford to employ a bookkeeper to keep track 

 of farming operations, so the system of farm book- 

 keeping must be of the simplest kind. The aver- 

 age farmer would not recognize a trial balance no 

 matter where he might come in contact with it. 

 And it is not necessary that he should recognize it 

 in order that he may successfully carry on his busi- 

 ness. 



The richest farmers the author ever knew were 

 men who could neither read nor write. He recalls 



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